I just had a strange experience with a company I've recommended for about two years. I used their platform while working with a company a few years back. It was great!

Infusionsoft, it has everything a small business needs. On-line CRM, email marketing, great tutorials, e-commerce settings and more. It's easy to learn and very flexible.

I was all set to sign up last night and start using them today. I've decided not to use their services and no longer feel comfortable recommending them to other small businesses.

Here's what happened:

I tried to sign up online and couldn't

I chatted online with a support person last night

I learned you can't sign up online (I thought that was strange for a company that supports on line businesses and supports e-commerce)

I got an email from a sales person with their contact information

I Skyped him

The sales person doesn't work nights

I left a message

I got a call from the salesperson today (Chad was helpful but got stuck with having to tell me the policy is the policy)

Chad told me about a HIDDEN cost for Infusionsoft - a $2000 new user set up fee (So, they want $2000 just to get started and then $299.00 a month for the level of service I want)

Chad was great, he told me that the fee was to help new users get started and even helped get the price reduced for me

After that, it got worse!

You pay the fee whether you use their service or not.

The reason for the fee... so that people don't sign up with Infusionsoft and then leave after paying hundreds of dollars a month for a service they aren't using. By charging the fee Infusionsoft believes they are getting better clients.

The next comment was since Infusionsoft put the fee on sales are up over the last two years and cancellations are down.

Whoa, stop there, think about it. Let's look at the real reasons more people are using a company like Infusionsoft:

High unemployment rates mean more people are starting businesses than ever before

A number of companies are reducing staff and replacing them with on line systems like Infusionsoft offers to save money

New companies are looking for ways to control and manage their business without having to hire more staff

What does it really mean?

Infusionsoft has lost the vision that once made them great.

Infusionsoft is losing business every day because people go somewhere else once they learn about the ridiculous rip off fee.

Infusionsoft is wasting time, money and energy because they market to everybody instead of established businesses only.

Infusionsoft has decided that rather than tell people about the fee up front they have to dig for it. That sounds like deceptive marketing to me and Infusionsoft should be ashamed of themselves.

If you know of a company that offers a similar platform to Infusionsoft let me know. I’ll look into them and get back to you.

Thanks for sharing your feedback. I’m sorry you didn’t have the smoothest experience from the website to the point of sale – we’re open to ideas to improve the process and your description here outlines a few areas where we can improve.

You’re correct in saying that we have attracted more successful customers recently. We’ve seen many unhappy customers come and go by allowing people to use our app without any strategic guidance. Our Quick-Start Bundles solve for this by providing hands-on and personalized consulting.

Our CEO and Co-founder, Clate Mask, has blogged about this very topic recently. I encourage you and your readers to read it: http://www.infusionblog.com/infusionsoft-company-buzz/marketing-automation-for-small-businesses-isnt-just-software/

These services help new users migrate previous systems (CRM, email marketing, e-commerce, etc.) into Infusionsoft. We’ve seen that established businesses have numerous processes and systems in place and need personalized guidance to fully adopt our sales and marketing software.

Business owners are much more discriminating with each dollar spent and where it goes especially when it comes to sales and marketing software. It has led us to work even harder to better serve businesses by aggressively building our suite of features as well as providing tailored value all backed by amazing customer support.

Our vision hasn’t changed and remains, “Infusionsoft will be the leading marketing automation software small businesses use to grow quickly and profitably.” Our required services bundle ensures we can deliver on this vision with each and every customer.

We know our software isn’t for everyone. We’re not for startups and we’re not for mid-size and larger organizations. We’re designed for small businesses with 2-25 employees that typically operate between $200K and $2MM+ in revenue.

Again, I’m sorry you felt surprised by the pricing and I want to let you know that I’ll take your concern about disclosure seriously and will work with our marketing team to improve its visibility on our website. However, I’d like you to consider the substantial value that business owners receive in their Quick-Start Bundle.

I’m happy to discuss any other questions or concerns you might have anytime. My contact information is below. Thanks! :-)

Joseph, thank you for responding. I'm still disappointed by this whole thing.

I find it interesting that the business plan Infusionsoft follows leaves start-ups out of their portfolio. As I move forward and my business grows I'll be working with the companies that I started with. The only way I would change providers would be if the pain of working with them outgrew my needs. Many businesses and small operators (like myself) would find the work and costs involved in changing systems worse than the the "possible" advantage of changing.

Why not try something different?
Rather than slapping ridiculous fee on a start up who is willing to pay your monthly rate charge a consulting fee based on calls to the support line etc. Infusionsoft would still collect it's money and train people and the people would only pay for the training they took.

I can't help but feel that the fee is collected in many cases and that the services are not used. In my mind that's a cash grab.

I’m with you on that it does hurt that we tend to exclude smaller (micro/solo) businesses, but it may not be that way forever. For a number of years, we’ve been determined to serve the needs of these types of businesses, but we couldn't provide the value they expected. We're working hard every day to make it easier for smaller businesses to adopt powerful marketing automation software.

In light of the investment up front for top-notch strategic consulting, we offer flexible payment arrangements like interest-free payments that work with each business’ situation.

I like your idea about a-la-carte services consulting. I’ll elevate this to our management team to consider. However, we want to everything we can to provide premium value to every customer and not nickel-and-dime them through support calls like other SMB solutions. Nonetheless, this is a good idea and we’ll explore it further.

I disagree with the speculation about the lack of use of our services after people have purchased them. Since our revised services packages earlier this year, we’ve seen dramatic improvement in the adoption rate of our software and services. Several years ago, your assertion may have been the case for some users; but today, I’m happy to report that things are much different.

Thanks again for asking the tough questions and sharing your feedback. Let me know if I can be of any additional help. :-)

Joseph Manna
Community Manager, Infusionsoft

Reply

Dan Beresford

12/9/2011 07:51:33 am

Jospeh,

Thank you for the feedback and the reply. I signed with aweber yesterday afternoon. It won't do everything I want and that means I'll be doing some manual work arounds but even allowing for the time that will take and the different software I'll need I'm still ahead.

Another suggestion, a little clarity about who your ideal client is on your website. If start-ups are Infusionsofts business say so.

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